PHENND Fellow-Prison Education Coordinator

The Petey Greene Program, Philadelphia

About Us

The Petey Greene Program supports the academic goals of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people through high-quality volunteer tutoring programs, while educating volunteers on the injustice manifest in our carceral system.

We envision a world in which all incarcerated people have access to high-quality academic programs and we strive to inspire our alumni - both students and tutors - to become advocates, and to take on leadership roles that reimagine the criminal legal system. 

We operate the largest multi-state tutoring program, placing 1,000 volunteers annually to tutor 2,500 currently and formerly incarcerated people in seven states. PGP is headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, but the majority of our 25 employees work remotely in their respective regions.

The Role

The overarching responsibility of the PHENND Fellow will be to support volunteer tutors across PGP programs in Philadelphia, including programs in prison and reentry settings. To this end, the PHENND Fellow will recruit, train and manage university students and members of the community to serve as volunteer tutors, while collecting data for program improvement and evaluation. The evaluation of our programs will also serve as the foundation for expanding reentry programming both here in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in 2024 and beyond. Their main responsibilities will include facilitating recruitment events and volunteer interviews, collecting facility clearance documents from new volunteers, tracking volunteer attendance at tutoring sessions and providing support to volunteers throughout the tutoring experience. PGP also provides in-depth professional development support and training on the carceral state, educational justice, trauma informed tutoring strategies and ethical volunteerism.

Position Title

PHENND Fellow-Prison Education Coordinator, The Petey Greene Program, Philadelphia

Position Type

Full-time staff (35 hours/week) - AmeriCorps VISTA

Program Start/End Date

08/12/2024 To 08/11/2025

Accepting Applications

 03/01/2024  To  05/31/2024 

College Bridge instructors

The Petey Greene Program (PGP) is seeking volunteer writing and math instructors for our College Bridge Program in New Jersey, DC, New York, and Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Pittsburgh). This program, offered in partnership with local colleges and universities, helps incarcerated learners develop the critical thinking, writing, reading, and math skills that are necessary to pursue employment and post-secondary education, while fostering a sense of educational self-efficacy and self-confidence that will support them in these pursuits. 

PGP is the largest provider of academic tutoring and academic support services for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated learners. We piloted the College Bridge Writing Program at the DC Jail in 2020, and we currently offer college readiness programs in Washington, DC, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

Desired Qualifications:

  • MA or Ph.D. in relevant field (STEM for math instructors and humanities for writing instructors)

  • Experience teaching undergraduate- or AP-level courses

Responsibilities:

  • Teach weekly 90-minute classes (courses will be taught by teams of 2 instructors. Co-instructors may choose to teach all classes together or to take turns)

  • Design course syllabus in collaboration with PGP Director of Program Development, adapting the syllabi used in previous courses.  

  • Provide regular feedback on student assignments

  • Participate in biweekly meetings with teaching team and PGP staff 

  • Instructors may have to apply for background clearance and attend a facility custody training. 

To apply, please complete our online application form by March 31 for the summer semester and by June 30 for the fall semester. For more information, please contact Chiara Benetollo, Executive Director of the Center for Educational Justice and Equity (cbenetollo@peteygreene.org).

Diversity, equity and inclusion are foundational to the Petey Greene Program's work. We also believe that this work should be led by system-impacted people, whose perspectives and direct knowledge of the problems are necessary to achieving freedom and educational justice.

The PGP defines system-impacted as a person who by their own experience, family experience, school experiences, and/or communal experiences has previous interaction or involvement with and who is legally, economically, familially, or psychologically affected by the criminal legal system. Interaction or involvement with the criminal legal system includes arrest and/or detainment, appearance in criminal courts, incarceration, immigrant detention, juvenile detention, parole, and/or probation.

We strongly encourage system-impacted people, people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, and women to apply. The Petey Greene Program is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its personnel decisions based on race, ancestry, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital/domestic partner status, religion, age, disability status, veteran status, or former incarceration status.